Falls are a serious health problem for all types of people, especially elderly people in all countries. M. Tinetti interviewed 336 people who were 75 yrs or older, living at home in New Haven, Conn. (Reference: Predictors and prognosis of inability to get up after falls among elderly persons. JAMA, January 1993, v. 269(1), p. 65-70). These elderly adults claimed that during the previous twelve months, 32% had one or more falls, and 24% had serious injuries including 6% with fractures. In a comparable study, A. Blake contacted 1042 people 65 yrs or older, living at home in England (Reference: Falls by elderly people at home: prevalence and associated factors. Age and Aging, 1988, v. 17, p. 365-372). During the preceding twelve months, 35% had one or more falls, i.e. 53% due to tipping, 8% due to dizziness, 6% due to blackouts and 19% uncertain. According to R. Cumming some medications increase the risk of multiple falls/yr, e.g. Diazepam (3.7× more likely), Diltiazem (1.8× more likely), Diuretics (1.8× more likely) and Laxatives (2.1× more likely) (Reference: Medications and multiple falls in elderly people: The St. Louis OASIS Study. Aging, November 1991, v. 20(6) p. 455-461).
According to J. Sutton, falls among elderly hospital patients in England are the most common type of self-inflicted accident (Reference: Patient Accidents in hospitals: incidence, documentation and significance. British Journal of Clinical Practice, March-April, 1994, v. 48(2), p. 63-66). J. Yaretzky studied a population of 609 hospital patients (447 females+162 men) in Israel with a mean age of 84 yrs (Reference: Falls in elderly patients in an institution. School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, December 1999, v. 121(12), p. 503-505). During a 2-month period, 18% of the patients had one or more serious falls. Older patients fell mostly while getting in and out of bed. Yaretzky also concluded that sleeping pills and psychotropic drugs increase the likelihood of falls. During the next decade of continuing hospital cutbacks and increasing patient-to-nurse ratios, the front-line nurses will require more assistive devices to increase their efficiency and ability to detect patient falls.
To prevent falls, there is a separate need to detect when a patient confined to bed is about to get out of bed or has gotten out of bed, i.e. bed egress. There is also a separate need to detect when a patient is wandering into areas in which the patient is not authorized to access.